We (Penny Tompkins and James Lawley) established a supervision group in January
1997 for facilitators using Clean Language and David Grove's Metaphor Therapy. In 2001 we
changed the scope of the group to a regular forum for the
exploration of new ideas in the field. We also changed the name to The Developing Group.

Our aim is to provide a setting where, within a clean approach:

leading-edge thinking can be applied in practical ways

we can go into greater depth on specific aspects related to Symbolic Modelling and other clean approaches

participants can develop their modelling skills and the ability to work systemically.

All the topics presented at the group are listed below.

The Developing Group is for people who use Symbolic Modelling and David
Grove's Clean Language, Clean Space and Emergent Knowledge processes.
Annual membership of the group is open to those who are personally recommended by a leading member of the Clean community, who have 10+ days training in Symbolic Modelling and who have maintained a
fluency with Clean Language.

The Developing Group is not a training. We present a day on whatever we find interesting and worth researching. Participants do not
know what the topic will be until we send
out an email with background 'notes' a week or two in advance. These notes and the input from the day either form the basis for an article that is subsequently published or they remain a 'work in progress' paper. Click on the links below to go direct to the relevant paper or see the summaries following the table.

'Development' is not out
there in the observed system — it is a perspective, a worldview, a way
of punctuating experience. We have become convinced of the value of
maintaining a developmental perspective because it helps us make sense
of the changes our clients do and do not make. (Not to mention
ourselves.)

"Becoming familiar with the characteristics of organisational levels of Metaphor Landscapes means you will be able to distinguish between them, to shift your attention from one to another and to recognise how each level influences the Landscape as a whole. This in turn will enhance your ability to cleanly invite clients to switch their attention within and between the four levels (symbols, relationships, patterns and pattern of organisation)." Metaphors in Mind, p. 31

Ken Wilber has said that the first two "important truths of postmodernism [that we construct reality and that meaning is context-dependent] means a multiperspective approach to reality is called for." We maintain that all of us naturally make use of multiple perceptions, multiple perspectives and multiple perceivers, but how do we do that?

"Everything is determined by context. All
messages in the real world that really are messages happen within a
context. The context may be evolutionary, chemical, biological,
neurological, linguistic, or technological, but it transforms the
question of information content beyond measure." Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, The Collapse of Chaos.

As this is the last Developing Group of the current series, the last
one of the year, the last one at our home, and the last one in the
current format, we thought we'd finish with 'endings'. Then it occurred
to us that an ending makes no sense without a beginning, hence the topic:
modelling 'Endings and Beginnings'.

How do people make use of their metaphors and
symbols once they’ve identified them? This
is such a natural thing for us to do that we had not appreciated the
extent to which some people can develop a new metaphor but then do not know
what to do with it. They do not naturally link their
metaphors to changing behaviour or perception in their everyday life. We
decided to find out what was happening. We have begun investigating
how people who ARE aware of utilising their metaphors do
this. And this topic will be the focus of the October 5th
Developing Group day.

Apart from metaphor, there is another, less well known process that seems to be equally fundamental to language and cognition — metonymy.
Metonymy enables us to use one part or aspect of an experience to stand
for some other part (or the whole) of that experience. Unlike metaphor
which involves two domains of experience, metonymy only requires one.

First of all, what is dynamic equilibrium?
Second, why make it a topic for the next Developing Group day (1 June 2002)
Third, how do you make use of the idea of dynamic equilibrium to improve your Symbolic Modelling skills?